High-Profile Medical Malpractice Suits Ensure Greater Accountability

While significant steps have been taken to improve safety in US hospitals, still every year around 1.2 million patients are harmed due to medical errors. The risks to patients vary hugely from one medical institution to another and, without a central network of accountability, it is difficult to ensure that every hospital is using the most recent evidence-based medicinal practices. Dealing with the consequences of a preventable injury or sudden death of a loved one due to malpractice can be overwhelming and patients and their families want to know that lessons have been learned. When a high profile case of medical negligence hits the news, it serves not only to highlight the compensation that can be achieved for clients, but also to ensure that medical professionals are held accountable and mistakes are less likely to be repeated. 

Holding Large Institutions to Account over Birth Injuries

In a record-breaking verdict, Iowa has recently seen the state’s largest award given for medical malpractice. A jury voted to award the parents of a baby left with brain damage with $98 million as they decided that the hospital and clinic used throughout the pregnancy and birth were equally negligent in their care. Parents will always want justice for any avoidable injury inflicted on their child during labor but facing up to powerful medical institutions can be daunting. In a high-stakes medical malpractice case, personal injury lawyers at JJS Justice note the importance of seeking accountability, even if it involves a prestigious organization. Whether a family takes on a case against a highly-ranked medical institution or a theater nurse calls out a prominent surgeon for committing an error, by not being afraid to speak up, further mistakes may be avoided in the future. 

Highlighting the Consequences of Never Events in Surgery

While enormous settlements hit the headlines and serve to highlight medical negligence, any type of case involving a celebrity will do the same. Never events describe operations and treatments that at no time should occur, and they include operating on the wrong body part or performing the wrong surgical procedure on a patient. It has been estimated that over 4,000 never events occur during surgical procedures every year in the US. The high-profile case of medical malpractice involving Dana Carvey, comedian and former cast member of Saturday Night Live, brought attention to the occurrence of such events. While undergoing an operation on his heart, his surgeon performed a bypass on the wrong artery and had to operate a second time to correct their error. Although the surgeon claimed it was a legitimate mistake, Carvey won a case against him for having twice come close to death and then needing a further two years to recover.  

For patients and their families, winning a case of medical malpractice can give them the support they need to move on with their lives. More objectively, successful cases highlight instances of negligence and avoidable mistakes, and push medical institutions to implement measures to ensure the same errors are never repeated.